Explanation: An
alluring night skyscape,
this scene looks west across the Grand Teton National Park,
Wyoming, USA, Planet Earth.
The Snake River glides through the foreground, while
above the Tetons' rugged mountain peaks the starry sky is laced with
exceptionally strong red and
green airglow.
That night,
the luminous atmospheric glow was just faintly visible
to the eye, its colour and wavey structure
captured only by a sensitive digital camera.
In fact, this contemporary digital photograph
matches the location and perspective of a well-known
photograph from 1942 -
The Tetons
and The Snake River , by
Ansel Adams,
renown photographer of the American West.
Adams' image is one of
115
images stored on the Voyager Golden Record.
Humanity's message in a bottle,
golden records were onboard both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2
spacecraft, launched in 1977 and now headed toward
interstellar space.